the kings and queens of promise
by grotesqueries
Summary: sasukarin- i am the life that you adore, and i don't want anybody else.
1. checkmate

... i really like sasukarin.

anyway. i started writing this back when it first came ou that karin's an uzumaki, and thankfully it got me back to writing them! i feel like this is one of my best works for them as of late. either way, i like it. also chess metaphors. yyeeaahh. feel like it might be a little bit of a pwp just cause i really wanted to write them interacting again. alas.

* * *

When Sasuke is captured and taken back to Konoha, the first person he asks –no, _demands_ to see after he has been interrogated is Karin. And she comes, guarded by ANBU on both sides, wearing the white outfit worn by many a hospital patient. The way that she slides into the chair across from him and simply waves the ANBU away is scary in itself, an eerie reminder of generations past.

"Sasuke." She says in lieu of a greeting. "Funny seeing you here."

He sighs, his weariness barely concealed. "I could say the same to you, Karin."

"How've things been?" she asks lightly, looking at him through the glare that reflects off of her glasses. "Did you have fun? You know, you didn't need to come visit me."

"Don't play coy." He snarls, standing abruptly, eyes fiercely focused on her. "Why didn't you _tell_ me?" He fumes, clutching the desk separating them so hard hairlines cracks race up and down it. She blinks, cocking her head too innocently.

"Tell you _what_, Sasuke? That you would get captured, just like the utter _idiot_ you are? I had no idea. You tossed me away, remember? Just like a leaf in the wind."

"That you- That Naruto – that you're _related _to that infernal beast!" He screeches, his hands closing into fists on top of the table.

"Related?" she pushes her glasses up, crossing her legs under the table. "I've got no idea what you're talking about."

"Don't play me, Karin. You're an Uzumaki and you _knew it_."

"I didn't, actually." She states, voice cold as she stares him down. Slowly, he sits down, not breaking eye contact. "And even if I had, I wouldn't have told you. Do you know why, Sasuke?" her voice shakes, almost cracks, but she points her chin at him and takes a sharp breath. "Do you?"

"What do you think," he growls. She smiles, tart and full of pity.

"Because you don't like your pieces to have an origin story. You got rid of your rook and your bishop because they were in the way. And then you exiled your queen because _I knew too much_. You got too attached, so you panicked. And there sat the lone king, high on his throne with no one but a fallen knight to feed him his daily serving of lies. And you _liked it _that way_._" She takes a deep breath. "That is why."

"That explains nothing. Do you see why I desired the destruction of this horrid place? It dulls-" _you_, he almost says, but he bites his tongue. He does not get emotionally attached. He is Sasuke Uchiha of the fallen Uchiha clan, and he does not display emotional attachment to a mere sensor, a fallen visage of a queen once powerful. "It dulls its inhabitants."

"It explains everything, you idiot." She snarls through her teeth. "I wouldn't have told you even if I had known because I am tired of being your leverage. I am not your knight as surely as I am not your shield."

"You aren't my queen, either." He states coldly. She smirks tightly.

"Says the fallen king. Tell me, Sasuke, how are your eyes?"

He goes quiet, for once without reply.

"Why are you in the hospital?" He finally asks, voice indifferent as if he couldn't care less why her skin is sunken and pale and her bites look abused.

"You should know why," she purrs, uncrossing her legs and extending a pale arm, marred by fierce bites. "Feeling hungry, Sasuke?"

"I have no taste for Uzumaki's." he bites out.

"How ironic. From what you've told me, all Naruto wants to do is sink his teeth into you."

His features twist as he fumbles for a proper reply. Karin smiles pityingly at his tight expression. The strain of his village spreads his mind too thin. "I'll bet he'd rather go after you."

She smiles. "Oh no, Sasuke. You should know you are the only person I can allow to bite me. It simply isn't the same without you, you know? No matter how much of an idiot you are." She taps her fingers impatiently on the smooth wood of the table. "You are _my_ idiot."

"I belong to no one." He hisses then, his eyes lighting up with fury. He stands abruptly, lightning crackling under his fingertips. Immediately the ANBU guards outside of their room stand at attention as they file in, ears tuned to the crackle of lightning.

"He's okay-" Karin begins to say, standing quickly and lunging forward to grab his wrist. "Let him stay."

The ANBU tense, on all sides of the temperamental boy, and Sasuke heaves a breath, chest rising and falling as she attempts to control his fury.

"I will never belong to anyone." He finally says. If Karin has any mind to protest, she does not, for me speaks again before anything can be said. "And asking to see you was a mistake." And then he turns, holding his arms out for the ANBU to shackle.

And as he is lead out with three ANBU, Karin only grits her teeth. "You needed me once, you stupid boy! You are mine as much as I am yours!"

But again, her cries fall of deaf ears. Without another word, the remaining ANBU lead her out, pressing the bruises on her arms. With her eyes set on the figure of the betrayed king in front of her, Karin chuckles a low laugh.

"_Make me your queen_."

Yards in front of her, Sasuke stiffens.

* * *

review, review!


	2. absolute pin

... um. kanae story alerted this and my world sort of turned very abruptly upside down. i was all 'OH SHIT WHAT DO I DO' and then i figured it was only right to post the ficlet i'd just finished as part of it. because, well, you know. when someone you consider sasukarin royalty puts your fic on story alert, you update it no matter what the status of it is. (for the record, it's complete for now unless i get a sudden burst of inspiration that associates directly with this.)

so, uh. enjoy, kanae! (and i suppose this could be a prequel to checkmate that i am conveniently going to post as a second chapter. and the entire thing is inspired by anyone's ghost by the national - and the awesome sasukarin vid to the same song.)

* * *

She finds him in the ruins of a fight he has long since lost.

"Sasuke?" she says, her voice shy. He glances to the side, imperceptibly catching her in his sharingan.

(Damn those legs.)

"Karin."

"What are you- Um. I brought you food. You know, I'm sure Suigetsu and Juugo wouldn't mind if I didn't come back immediately, you and I could-"

"No." he turns, blinking his sharingan away and taking his food from her hands.

"You didn't get hear what I was going to say," she pouts, crossing her arms and leaning into her hip. He raises an eyebrow, his mouth still a thin line of pressure. "What I was _going_ to say was that we could- well I mean, if it doesn't bother your delicate sensibilities or anything, I was thinking that we could eat together." Her cheeks flush a rosy pink at that, though she desperately tries to stifle it by pulling her own food from within her cloak.

He looks at her, just for a moment, and she can feels the cold metal of his onyx eyes scraping along her bones, scritch scratch scooping the marrow of her bones from within her.

(Damn those eyes.)

"Sit." He finally says, as he turns and takes a seat, looking out over the Kage Summit. The smallest of smiles graces her features as she deftly avoids the rocks scattered around that threaten to trip her up at every moment. She takes a seat next to him – almost too close for comfort but she's careful that there are inches between them, not centimeters. She has at least that much tact.

"…Sasuke?" she says again as she unwraps her food.

"Hn?" he grunts through a mouthful of rice.

"Why are you over here?"

"…" He looks to her from the corner of his eye, the corners of his mouth going down into a frown. "That doesn't matter."

It's a stupid answer to a silly question, but she accepts it, knowing that he is not going to want to talk. So she only nods, turning her attention back to her food.

(Always back to something else.)

"Karin?" he asks, more of a hollow statement than a question.

"Yes?"

"Why did you come here?" Here meaning back to him, out to him from where they stay. Here meaning with him.

"Because even the most fearless of leaders need to eat. If you don't eat, your appetite won't be the only deprived thing."

The look of sheer irritation he gives her makes her desperately hold back a smile. At least he figured out what she was saying. "I trust you with my life, but I wouldn't trust delirious you with anything at all." She pushes her glasses up at that, setting her finished food to the side.

He takes an errant breath. "Not even you?"

"Wha- What do you mean?"

"You. you wouldn't trust 'delirious me' with yourself?"

The look of abject shock on her face as she meets his gaze sets goosebumps pricking across his glassy skin.

"I- Sasuke-!"

"Answer me, Karin."

She takes her time with that, lowering her head and taking her glasses off before speaking. "I... I don't know." She begins cleaning her glasses on the lining of her cloak, the parts that don't pool around the dusty rock surrounding them.

"Then leave," Sasuke says, turning ever-so-slightly away.

"What?"

"This is a team, Karin. If you can't trust me at... my worst, you have no reason to be here."

And at that, she laughs, high from behind her tongue as she puts her glasses back on. "And where would I go? You and I are in this together, Sasuke. You need me just as much as I need you. So yes, I trust you with my life and more."

(In this to win this.)

"And besides," she says after, sliding closer so her lips rush his ear. "I don't want anybody else."

He stiffens imperceptibly, his mouth set once again in an unfeeling line. "Let's go back to Suigetsu and Juugo."

(And he doesn't want anyone else either. She is his.)

Silently, they make their way through the forest.

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